Hi Mamta and All,

Anyone know how I can build a tandoori oven at home in my garden? What sort of materials do I need? It seems too expensive to buy one (unless anyone knows of any good places in East London). Is it relatively easy to make? I'm craving the authentic taste at the moment, and it's also nice to call your friends over and gather around the tandoor for a party.

Thanks all,

Farzana

Farzana

I don't know anyone who's made a tandoor to be honest or even owned one.

When mum (Mamta) cooks tandoor dishes she turns the normal oven up to it's HOTTEST setting which mimicks the heat within a tandoor very well.

Best of luck

Kavita

You can buy them from varying places but they are very expensive either because they are a complicated oven that has been manufactured to be used in a modern (restaurant) kitchen or because they have been hand made to the original designs (and possibly shipped over from India/Pakistan).

The real Tandoor is a large clay pot that you would have charcoal in at the bottom.. well thats very basically what it is...It actually is a pretty skilled job to make one and get it right...

I watched them being made on a cookery programme once (think it could have been Keith Floyd in India) it only showed a brief look and didn't show the whole process but it did involve lots of shaping and making etc...

I've always thought about getting a modern kitchen type one until I saw the prices...

Hello Farzana

I will not make a tandoor myself, but here are a few links that might help. The last one tells you how to cook like a tandoor in your oven, I might try it sometimes!

ihttp://www.cpsusa.com/ebay/tandoorOven.htm

http://piers.thompson.users.btopenworld.com/insulating.html

http://www.cuisinecuisine.com/IndianBBQ-Tandoori.htm : "Turn your oven into a tandoor

To mimic tandoor baking in a regular electric or gas oven, you'll need a baking stone or some unglazed quarry tiles placed on an oven rack. The larger the baking surface, the better. The stone or tiles should cover the rack with a one-inch gap around the edge to let hot air circulate.

Clay pots are nowadays being used for at home Tandoori cooking. They are found in a variety of sizes in many markets in Mexico. When cooking with clay, the pot must be soaked in cold water for at least 15 minutes. If it hasn't been used before, it should be soaked for at least 30 minutes. During the soaking, the terra cotta absorbs moisture which is released when the pot is in the oven, thus creating a moist cooking atmosphere. The clay pot must be placed in a cold oven and heated gradually. Set the temperature once the pot is inside. Never place in a preheated oven."

I suppose you could use a "pizza stone" to similar affect in your normal oven.

hi ive built a tandoori oven but knocked it down to relocate it im about to rebuild it from scratch with some very clever ideas to get the most out of the tandoor and build it as cheap as i can ill see if i can post the method on the internet with photos ect keep an eye out for it along with a tandoori chicken recipy to die for and stuff like rogan jhosh on a skewer

Mike I'd love to see the photos of the rebuild if you can manage it !

Steve

I have been interested in T.oven for sometime, searched for it in the internet ranging from ?199 to ?375 for smaller portable ones (18 - 22 inches height)but I think the best would be self made garden ones, which would be bigger, but the only problem being where to get the most important item i.e. the clay pot from ?

Ive posted this before but i'll post it again:

http://www.villagok.dk/tandoor/

I was going to build one like this, but unfortunately havent got around to it. Its beautiful. Rajaneesh you just need a big pot from a garden centre.

Cheers

Steve

I remember seeing this picture before, somewhere. It looks great steve :-). Can we all come to dinner?

no worries steve im not computer litterate but ill get one of the kids to set up a web site for me with step by step photos and instuctions plus a few tips tricks hows that mate

Mike, sounds spot on, can't complain at that !

Steve

Steve that brick oven is fantastic clean work, it is almost like a small house. I am not good in DIY and dont even have appropriate tools but I can build a rectangle brick wall (circular is not my cuppa)but the question arises whether the pots avaialble in garden centre is of clay??. You have used terrocota one. How thick should be pots be? Because if one gets this wrong and problems like cracks etc develop then the whole project will be a total flop.

These look pretty similar to the ones they have in india;

http://www.poptastic.com/tandoor.html

http://www.tandoors.com/tandoor_residential.php

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kirby/2/1231144320/tpod.html

This one shows my SIL's home made tandoor;

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10152

In India, they don't use clay pot, just loads of clay, probably mixed with some mortar. The clay cooks and hardens by itself as the tandoor is used.

My Indian friend told me that when they built theirs they used an oil drum case and filled it with concrete mixed with glass.